[ankan.m.blr]

Originally Posted by devansn

1. Did you have any children on board when the accident took place? If there were, the story may have been a little different. My daughter doesn't sit on her child seat how much ever hard you try. So most of the times she sits on her mother's lap.
2. Not saying that emotions are not to be taken into consideration, but personally, I would have gone for a "total loss" claim and bought a new car. Logically, the repaired car cannot be as strong / safe as a new one.
3. Don't remember if Ritz ZXi has airbags - if yes, why didn't they pop out?


"Holding on to anger is like eating venom and expecting the other person to die" - Budha :-)

Thankfully, there was no children on board at that time. I would have make sure the child would sit in child-seat and remain belted. Regarding repair of the car, so far the car is behaving ok. Keeping fingers crossed. The air-bags didn't open as there was no direct frontal collision - this is what I assume. Not sure if they were supposed to deploy.
OT: I like the quotation and planning to share with my friends and colleagues.

[CoolBlueBiker]

Hello Ankan. Nice to see that you have re-gained the confidence and are tripping again After my bike accident, it took me several months to get back my confidence.

Also great to see that the whole incident has not put your wife off from accompanying you.

[silverado]

Your incident reminds me of a loaded truck ride we had hitched during my college days.the road was a narrow one and truck was doing around 40kph. From opposite side was coming another truck and all of a sudden came a ST bus determined to overtake, it came so close that truck had to veer off the road on to the shoulder.

The jolt of getting down made the driver feel that truck was not going to make back, hence he continued in the same tilted way for few more seconds and then slowly got that behemoth back on road.

I can understand it must have been a difficult case for you in that situation, but by gods grace you all are safe and sound and the bikers are safe and sound, else things would have been worse if you would have hit anyone of them.

And thanks for sharing this , we all definitely had things to learn from this incident.

[OffDaBeemer]

Ankan, glad that you, all co-passengers and the fellow travellers were all safe, save for the minor injuries.

1) Your Zulu rolled thrice and still the overall structure was intact - anyone would suspect that the roof would get deep-dented. Looking at the pictures, its not too bad. The build quality / structural strength of RITZ is admirable I believe.

I own a used Ritz vxi and will love my car more I guess

2) Cosmetic restoration apart, a car that was involved in such an accident would never be the same(structurally), besides, the service centers are either not well equipped / well staffed(read expert technicians) to restore it back to factory quality. I had a wagon-r that was involved in a minor accident(right front wheel assembly, right front door dammaged), it took 40 days for the service center to get it going but it was never the same, the technicians couldnt figure out what the issue was. I sold it off out of frustation as I dont like to keep anything that is not fit 100% mechanically.

3) Amazing pics from your trip btw.

4) If money is not a constraint, you could keep it as a backup vehicle and go for a good user car or a new one that does daily duties


Drive Safe!!

[KPS]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

It is shocking to hear that a car equiped with ABS lost control on hard braking.

ABS will largely help if you are braking on a straight line. If you have lost control of the car and then brake, ABS cannot help. The difference height of the road from the shoulder would have cause him to loose control when tried to come back on the road

Originally Posted by jinojohnt

I would say the Ritz has taken the impact very-well. Roof did not collapse even when the car over-turned. The belted passengers were given a safe coccoon in the passenger compartment.

Soft landing is the key. The soft paddy fields would have saved substantial damage. The modern day cars are designed to absorb maximum shock and save passengers. As you rightly said seat belts are the key. Wearing the rear seat belt is as important, unfortunately the rear passengers do not appreciate its importance. Believe me, if anyone of them had not belted themselves, they would have be thrown out of the car when it rolled 3 times.

Originally Posted by ankan.m.blr

Hello Team-BHPians,
I have finally gathered enough courage to share the details of an accident that happened to me

Good for you ankan to get over this and learn from your mistakes. I too have had two accidents and you learn that it is better that you are careful and aware in the first instance. Our highways throw up so many surprises one can never be too careful.

Drive safe

Cheers

KPS

[krish82]

The most important thing I learn from your accident is:
Do not check official emails on vacation ! unnecessary trouble.

[rajwheelz]

Very happy to know that you came out unscathed.

For what it's worth, let me share my trick on how I keep my cool during such situations.

1. Whenever I enter my car ( M800 then, Figo now, Mostly Xylo next ), I start the engine and when it's idling, I mentally repeat to myself 3 times. " I will not cheese off anyone and I will not get cheesed off by someone". Then I slot the 1st gear
2. If still someone manages to give me a frown, I just say to myself, "Will I see that person again anytime in my life? Let him go. Keep your cool".

It worked for me 100% of the time. Hope it helps others too.

Please always think of your loved ones, before you make any kind of aggressive movements with your cars. Not worth a rat tail tip, that single moment of road rage. Loved ones are waiting back home for us.

[Joe M]

I too have driven through the same stretch, and have noticed how easy the local people get into the road, or cross the road. There's no fences or anything to give the feeling of a separation between the area where cars go at 100 kph and the area where crops grow at 100 cm per 6 months.

This road is kind of tempting at some stretches, but should be driven with utmost care because the people on the road and nearby fields are not even remotely concerned about it's being a highway and cars coming fast. Only vehicles who get some consideration are buses. There are so many passenger rickshaws(now replaced by 'Ace Zip's) doing service all through the road.

[aneezan]

Thank heavens you and your family are OK. I had a similar accident during my trip from Bangalore to Nagercoil about 2 years ago. It was somewhere near Tirunelveli. The only difference was my car didn't roll over. But both my wife and me had our share of broken bones. To think back to this experience is scaring. Made up my mind not to take highway drives at night.

[saket77]

Originally Posted by rajwheelz

2. If still someone manages to give me a frown, I just say to myself, "Will I see that person again anytime in my life? Let him go. Keep your cool".

Loved ones are waiting back home for us.

Thanks rajwheelz for sharing the mantra and welcome to Teambhp. Few years ago, if anyone cheesed me off, I would instantaneously shift down a gear and give it back to him then & there, but now I think it was so silly. That's what separates the men from boys. Now, I would just say that your cheesing off is not even worth a penny in front of my (& my loved ones) lives. Go ahead and have an accident with someone else!

Regards,
Saket

[sandeepmohan]

I do not frequent the Nanjangud - Gundelpet stretch but whenever I am on it, car or motorcycle, the quality of the road surface makes me want to ride/drive fast without thinking about the dangers of doing so.

What really saved the day for you was that doctor. His help went a long way for you and your family. Folks like the doctor are hard to come by these days. In just about any accident, you are on your own. When it comes to dealing with the cops, you are at their mercy. I find the whole Kannada thing retarded and had experienced the exact same thing when I was caught taking pictures on railway property. Had to write why I was taking pictures in Kannada. Like yourself, I do not know how to write. Been trying to learn how to speak the language as it goes a long way when you interact with locals. This too has not had much progress.

Next time, hit the brakes. Let the system (ABS+EBD) take care on the rest. The situation would have been quite different. Do not swerve suddenly with a top heavy car too. I understand that this is natural tendency. Good to see you back in action.

[classicselva]

Thanks for sharing and hats off to you on accepting the mistakes.
SEAT BELTS SAVE... that is true.

Have a safe drive.

[isiv]

Like others have mentioned, it's really impossible to fathom in what possible ways things could go wrong. It's really amazing and unbelievable to see what kind of positions accidented vehicles end up in and what kind of injuries people involved in accidents sustain. But the deepest injuries caused by accidents IMO are emotional rather than financial/physical. That is the injury that takes the most time to heal. I remember having a head on collision on my bike with a car driven by a drunk. This happened almost 15 years back when I was still in college. Though I escaped with minor injuries, my bike was smashed. It was only when I started driving again, I realized what a nervous wreck I had become - constant honking even at very distant vehicles, way ahead of turnings etc etc and my right foot never relaxed - always ready to stomp on the brakes. It took more than a year before I returned to normal. What's more, I got into a couple low speed collisions because I was so hyper.

I would say you have unbelievable luck. Thank your stars and if you are the religious type, you know what to do. Coming to your analysis, I totally agree most accidents occur when our concentration is dimmed. But the most lethal to driving (long or short distances) are lack of sleep, temper and ego. Speed is only a terrific catalyst. If I sense any of these happening to me, the first thing I do where the situation permits, is stop then and there, get into a cab or bus. Once when I was having a stressful time at work (Four straight weeks of 14 - 15 hour workdays with 2 hours of up and down driving daily), I fell asleep on the wheel waiting at a signal. Woke up only when the driver behind me got off, knocked on my window and I saw the road ahead of me had cleared up. I was close to one of our branch offices, so simply drove in, parked and asked security to get me a cab. Picked up the car over only the weekend.

10 years back, I could do mysore-bangalore in less than 3 hrs without exeeding 75-80. Now I would rate the road unfit for driving - thanks to all the bullock carts, two wheelers, inter village three wheelers that are fatter than they're fast, badly driven fast cars (the likes of audis and bmws) and the general lack (decrease?) of road sense. So if you are forced to drive on such a road, I would say keep it under 60 - being a few hours late does not matter as long as you arrive safe. No need to mention the abyssmal levels of awareness/adherence to traffic rules and the fact that just because you follow them, it does not make you safe. And then you can add roads with craters, badly designed speedbreakers, unmarked speedbreakers, unmarked traffic islands etc etc.

On a side note, if I'm right, ESP is the system helps in bringing the car back to the straight line when loss of control is detected. Apparently works by varying braking force across the wheels to regain control. I do not know whether the Ritz comes with ESP. If yes, I'm inclined to think it's not done the job.

Good luck and drive safe.

[W.A.G.7]

Oh, man. That was a big accident. Thank your lucky stars that you are safe and no one was seriously injured. You sure had the almighty watching over you when you had the crash. Seatbelts save lives, there are no two ways above it. I know its difficult to forget the incident, but I think you should get on with your life; now that the incident is over and your car is back on the road. Think of it as a bad dream and just try to forget what happened. All the best.

[shinuak]

Ankan, Good to know that everyone emerged safe, since that is the prime thing. It is indeed a lesson to everyone including me to be extra cautious on the road and avoid driving if under too much stress / sleeplessness. Thank you so much for putting up this one, as threads like these make our community do a full circle by touching each and every aspect of owning and driving an automobile sensibly by bringing attention to real life incidents. Time will erode every bad memory and hope your friend and family will soon join you on your drives.